The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for the University Ex
tension Division.
MAY 11, 1927
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY OK NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
VOL. xm, No. 26
Kilitorittl Bonvd] E. C. Branson. S. H. Hobbs, Jr.. L. R. 'Wilson. E. W. Knight. D. D. Carroll, J. B. Bullitt. H. W. Odum.
^ Entored as second-class matter November N. 1914. at thePostoiHce at Chapel Hill. N. C.. under the act of August 24. 1912.
AGAm GUILFORD LEADS
The most strategic position in the
rural public library, similar to the
consolidated school in education, is the
county library which is steadily gaining
ground as a large unit type of service.
It puts any book, anywhere in the sys
tem, at the disposal of a serious reader
wherever he may live. Thus the
scattered rural folk receive a high grade
of library service, comparable to that
of the cit y library.
Guilford county, the first in the state
to render county library service, has
for a number of years been maintaining
small horary deposit stations through
out the county as well as service
from the desk. Realizing the lack of
personal contact with the rural people
and the inability of many to come to
the library and stations, it was deemed
wise to provide some mekns by which
each person in the couniy could be
reached and could have the same op
portunity as his brother who lives in
side the city limits.
The most feasible plan by which this
task might be accomplished was the
purchasing and building of a book
truck. The order was placed just as
soon as the county board of education
agreed to give to the pabiic library the
full amount of the dog tax.
With the glass-covered shelves on
each side of the truck and a desk formed
by letting down the back, this Parnas
sus on wheels carries its wares all over
Guilford county. Above the shelving
one may see words—Greensboro Public
Library—Free Reai^ng for Guilford
County.
Meeting with Success
From Che very first, the success ha;
been almost phenomenal. Each week
the circulation has grown and the num
her of Dorrowers increased. The story
of the truck iias spread over the entire
state and, as the first six-months period
has ex;>ired, staiisLics ohow a circulation
of 27,yiJ bucks and d,4t0 borrowers.
Thete figures show the exact number of
bocks charged from the truck, but the
actual reading has been far greater than
this number. The children have ex
changed books between trips and one
small girl reported over BO books read
in a short time.
With two million people in rural
North Carolina, 71 percent of the entire
population, without local library ser
vice, surely Guilford is doing a wonder
ful experimental work.
Does this work not bind more firmly
the link between city and county?
Thousands of dollars are being spent by
chambers of commerce in trade cam
paigns. Neither town nor county can
iive alone today; and the bond drawing
them together is a vital asset. “How
about the joint institutions for town
and county, such as the library?” This
question is being asked by library offi
cials. “Can not the little book truck
that bears its message of co-operation
and good feeling in all sorts of weather
to all hamlets and homes of our rural
districts be the best advertisement our
town has?” is another vital question.—
Adapted from Greensboro Daily News.
GAINFULLY EMPLOYED
A decline in the number of gainfully
occupied persons in porportion to the
total population in the United States
occurred betw'een 1910 and 1920, and a
further decline from 1920 to' 1925, ac
cording to a study of occupational dis
tribution of the population made by the
National Industrial Conference Board.
Relatively larger school enrollment and
college attendance and changes in im
migration ‘are among the chief factors
accounting for the increased proportion
of persons not gainfully occupied.
Less than four out of every ten per
sons in the United States in 1926 were
^ working for a living. The other six
either were living on the returns on their
investments, or were being supported
by others or at public expense. Whereas
41.6 percent of the total populatioh
were gainfully occupied in 1910 only
39.4 percent were so occupied in 1920,
and 37.2 percent in 1926.
Of the more important industrial
countries in Europe, only the Nether
lands and Denmark recorded a lower
proportion of gainfully employed than
the United States for 1920, their num
ber constituting 37.7 percent of the
total population in each of these two
countries.
Causes of Decline
Taking enrollment in schools, colleges
and universities in the United States in
1920 as a measure, the number of pupils
and students enrolled in the various edu
cational institutions in 1325 exceeded
that to be expected on the basis of popu
lation increase by about one and a third
millions. This accounts for a large
portion of the increased proportion of
the not gainfully occupied. Immigra
tion restriction has resulted ia a shift
of the average population, resulting in
a larger prcporlim of aged persons, and
has had similar influence upon the
proportion of gainfully occupied adults.
Nearly sixty-three percent of our
total population in 1926 lived on income
derived from investments or were sup
ported by others, in the light of this
study. The gainfully employed pop
ulation is distributed as follows:
Percent
Manufacturing and mechanical 29.9
Agriculture 24.6
Trade 10.7
Clerical work 8.9
Domestic and personal service.. 8.4
Transportation 7.6
Professional service 6.5
Mining 2.7
Public service, including mili
tary and naval 1.8
Persons engaged in agriculture show
a decided decrease, constituting 24.6
-percent of gainfully occupied in 1926,
as against 33 2 percent enumerated in
1910, the year of the last pre-war cen
sus. The proportion of those in the
manufacturing and mechanical indus
tries, has increased only slightly, from
27,8 percent in 1910 to 29.9 percent in
1925; miners and transportation workers
likewise show a slight relative increase.
Clerical workers nearly doubled their
proportion to other workers, constituting
4.6 percent of the gainfully occupied in
1910 and 8.9 percent in 1926. Those in
trade, in public service and professional
service have slightly increased in pro
portion to other groups of gainfully
occupied, but a relative decline from 9.9
percent to 8.4 percent is estimated to
have taken plac^ in the proportion of
domestic and personal servants ;^to the
total number of gainfully employed.
MOTOR BUS SESVICE"
According to the recent report of the
State Corporation Commission for the
biennium 1926-1926 there were on
August 14, 1926, ninety-seven passenger
bus line certificates outstanding and
under these certificates a total of 466
motor busses were being operated on
approximately 4,500 miles of road.
The length of the average line was
46.76 miles.
The estimated total mileage traveled
by the passenger busses during the
year which ended June 30, 1926, is
11,360,040. The total revenue from
passenger operations for the period was
$2,370,800, and the tax paid on the
basis of six percent of gross revenue
amounted to $142,250. From these
figures it appears that the average bus
mile revenue was 20.9 cents. Only a
few of the operators kept records
adequate to reveal operating costs, so
the profitableness of the service can
not be ascertained.
On August 14, 1926, seventeen express
or freight certificates were outstand
ing and'under these there were being
operated 83 trucks on 1,766 miles of
road. From a rough estimate, says
the report, it appears that the tonnage
carried by trucks operating under the
law did not exceed 15,000 tons. Pack
ages weighing less than a hundred
pounds and carried at package rates
are not included in this tonnage. “The
total revenue of such carriers for the
fiscal year ended June 30, 1926, was
$122,559 and the tax paid $7,363.
There are 33,661 thwks operated
within the state, transporting property
either for their owners or under private
contract and the law does not prevent
these trucks from exercising every
privilege of a property carrier under
the bus law, except that of advertising
gular schedules and publishing tariffs, j
These figures reflect the volume and :
importance of the freight and pas- ■
senger service which has developed in a ;
few years as a result of improved
highways. [
education fkees
Sixty years ago the Danes were a
nation of peasants. Today they are
a nation of independent farmers,
prosperous and free', masters of their
own economic destiny.
Such results do not spring from
a few heated mass meetings or a
hectic membership campaign for a
co-operative marketing societJ^ A
growth like this means that a lot of
hard work has been put into the
preparation of the sccial soil.
The Danish farmers manured their
farms with their own brains, after
they had subjected their brains to a
special kind of schooling they had
themselves created outside the reg
ular .-aystem of Denmark.
The Danes have proved that there
is no fertilizer on earth equal to free
minds.
In the first half of the nineteenth
century, when Denmark was down
at the heel, a prophetic leader arose
ia the person of Nicholai S. F.
Grundtvig, who challenged the Dan
ish peasants w’ith a program that
we go-getter Americans, in a similar
hour of economic discontent, would
hoot at as impraeticjl and \i*ior!ary.
Grundtvig set out to establish
intellectual freedom in Denmark
as the quickest means of achieving
( economic freedom. He invented a
new kind of school that produced a
new kind of education that created
a new kind of farmer.
These Danish Folk Highschools,
born in the brain of Grundtvig, are
unconventional affairs, not at all like
ordinary schools. They are at
tended not by children, but by young
adults of the rural communities.
There are no entrance requirements
to these schools except age and a
desire to learn. There are no text
books, no assigned lessons, no ex
aminations, no graduations, no di
plomas, The whole business is very
simple, -in inspiring teacher lec
tures for an hour once a day to
about a hundred students, and then
spends the rest of the day discuss
ing with individual students and
groups of students the questions
that are uppermost in their minds as
a result of their daily lives or the
daily lecture.
The purpose of these schools is
not vocational. The young adults
from the Danish farms do not go to
these schools to get quick training
,in the technical job of running a
creamery pr a cheese factory—they
go to get a sound outlook on life.
These informal scliools try to do
two things: First, they try to
saturate the young Danes to face
fearlessly the challenge of Den
mark’s future. These schools find
the problems of education ' not be
tween the backs of books, but • in
the traditions, conditions, forces, and
needs of the Danish community.
These schools do not attempt to
educate the young Danes; all they
try to do is to help the young Danes
to learn how to go on educating
themselves as long as they live.
These schools are simply an in
formal attempt to free the mind of
rural Denmark from the dead hand
of outworn traditions, while holding
fast to great traditions that still
live, to give the mind of rural Den
mark a sense of social needs that
must be met and the science that
will meet them, and to make the
mind of rural Denmark immune to
the poison of cheap phrases and
demagogic catch-words.
The vast system of Danish co
operatives would never have lasted
so long save for this previous un
shackling of the mind of rural Den-
'mark. Here is something for Ameri
can farmers to think about.—Dr.
Glenn Frank, by permission of the
McClure Newspaper Syndicate.
with the Standard Milk Ordinance,
according to H. E. Miller, director of
the sanitary division. Ail of these 46
cities have adopted the ordinance since
1924.
Under this ordinance, all the milk
sold in the cities which have adopted it
is graded according to its bacteria
contents, which indicates its degree of
purity and percent of butter fat. The
ordinance further provides that the
bottle caps must carry the letter “A”,
“B”, “C”, to indicate tlie grade of
milk contained in the bottles.
In the Opinion of the sanitary divi
sion of the board of health, no one
thing has done more to reduce disease,
especially typhoid and intestinal di
seases transmitted in milk that is
improperly safeguarded, than the
adoption of this ordinance.
Attention was called to the recent
epidemic in Canada, traceable to
infected milk, as what might happen if
the milk supplies of the state are not
properly safeguarded by strict milk
ordinances, such as the standard ordi
nance. This ordinance is a uniform
ordinance, approved by the board of
health, which, when adopted, standard
izes th.e milk sanitation regulations in
ail Lections of the state.
Such an ordinance is of especial value
at present, with spring and lly-tiiiie
coming on, since it safeguards a l^rge
part of the family food supply, especial
ly the food of the babies and children.—
Gastonia Gazette.
URGES MORE LIVESTOCK
The Charleston News and Courier di
rects attention to a recent statement
by^Tomas E. Wilson, a Chicago packer,
to the effect that the South should give
more consideration to livestock and
that it would benefit from alliance with
the livestock men of the West and the
North through national organization of
meat produced. He says the opportun
ity is at hand and that the great re
sources of the South should be developed
through more intensive farming.
“Diversified farming and more in
tensive tilling of the soil are necessary
to development of the South’s appar
ently unlimited resources. It is a
very serious mistake to proceed on the
theory chat prosperity can be legislated.
Economic forces can not be curbed by
legislation. The possibilities are here
and their accomplishment seems to be
entirely up to you.”
Mr. Wilson is offering sane, practical
advice to all Southern farmers through
the southern cattlemen he was address
ing. All students of the agricultural
situation have been and^ are agreed
that diversification and intensive culti
vation are principal needs throughout
the South. One-crop farmers are in a
serious plight when their single crop
fails or the prices are too low. Farm
ers who are watchful of their food
and feed crops have less to fear when
depression comes.
Here in the Southeast, the cattle and
livestock industry, which nets profits in
other sections, has been pretty much
neglected. When farmers in the South
east are willing to devote to cattle and
livestock the same attention farmers
in other sections devote, they will know
by personal advantages that the in
dustry is worth while. Here and there,
an effort at breeding cattle and live
stock has been made, but the enter
prise needs to be much wider. —Con
cord News.
OF INFINITE CONCERN
The health of the farmer and bis
collaoorator, the citizen of the small
town, their degree of economic inde
pendence, their satisfaction with the
life in the country, their initiative,
their progressiveness or lack of it, the
rightness of their social life, and the
vitality of their religion-all these mat
ters are .in the end religious questions
and are of infinite concern to America.
The city man who makes sport of the
country man is a man standing on a
tower laughing at what he considers
the futile efforts of men’ below, who
will eventually strike his supports from
under him.—Washington College Bul
letin, ChestertowD, Maryland.
THE BLU^^ TRUTH '
Nowhere is the Church more nig
gardly with her resources than in the
rural field. Nowhere is the Church
more greatly needed. Mere strategy
should dictate a different policy. For
a long time to come the towns are go
ing to draw people from the country.
Rural work on the part of the Church
will guarantee a future tqwn popula
tion faithful to the Church,
The blunt truth of the matter is that
both as a Church and as a people we
have neglacted the rural dweller. It is
a challenge to the Cburch to lead the
nation, to make the woflc attract the
best of our clergy, by giving them big
tasks and adequate support. —The
World and I.
OUR STATE.GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES IN 1925
How North^Carolina RanKs in- Each Hem
The Federal ^Department of Commerce in its annual report on Financial
Statistics of States classifies state government'expenditures under nine main
departments. The following table gives the total amount spent by each
general department, the amount of such expenditure on a per inhabitant basis,
and how North^Carolina ranks with other states in departmental expenditures
per inhabitant.
Our total statergovernment expenditure for all general departments in 1926
was $16,679,744. The per inhabitant expenditure was $6.09, and on this basis
we ranked forty-second among the states.
For a detailed showing of state government expenditures by departments
for 1926 see Universiry News LetteF^olume XIII, No. 22.
Department of Rural Social-Economics, University of North Carolina
SAFEGUARDING MILK
There are now 46 cities in the state
which have adopted the Standard Milk
Ordinance, approved by the state board
of health, with the announcement that
the city of Reidsville is the latest
recruit to make the ordinance manda
tory, it was learned from the sanitary
engineering division of the board of
health. With the addition of this city,
more than 80 percent of the milk
produced in the state now complies
Item
Total
expen
diture
Per inhab.
expen
diture
How N. C.
ranks on
per-inhab.
All general departments $16,679,744...
$6.59....
basis
L
General government
1,463,460...
0.B3....
... 40th
2.
Protection to person and property
a. Militia and armories
132,368...
0.05
... 31st
b. Regulation
325,447...
0.12 ....
... 43rd
c. All other
206,341...
0.08
... 36th
3.
Development and conservation of
natural resources
a. Agriculture ^
809,727...
0.30
.. 36th
b. All other (forests, fish, game,
etc.)
117,494...
0.04
... 38th ■
4.
Conservation of health and sanita
tion
a. Prevention and treatment of
communicable diseases
425,879...
0.16 ....
... 16th ,
b. All other.
354,436...
0.13
... 22nd
5.
Highways (supervising dept, and
maintenance only)
3,310,684...
1.21
... 26th
6.
Charities, hospitals and correc
tions
3,061,175...
1.11
... 34th
7.
Education
5,169,267...
1.88.’....
... 44th
8.
Recreation
11,092...
0.004.,..
... 31st ’
9.
Miscellaneous, mainly pensions
1,2387204...
0.46
... 24th